Steve Youlden

Article by Chris Pitt

Steve Youlden was born on December 22, 1961 and had a relatively short career as a National Hunt jockey.

Having ridden his first winner on Malmaison at Worcester on May 9, 1981, he subsequently became stable jockey to Malmaison's Middleham-based trainer Harry Wharton, where he looked after the stable's most famous resident, Burrough Hill Lad, but he was unlucky in having more than his fair share of injuries.

They included a freak accident on novice chaser Cricket Wood at Sedgefield on November 30, 1984, which resulted in a broken leg and side-lined him for the remainder of the season.

When sufficiently recovered to be able to resume riding, he spent a six-week busman’s holiday in California, working eight horses every morning at Hollywood Park for English-born trainer Neil Drysdale.

He returned in time for the start of the 1985/86 jumps season, which turned out to be numerically his best with ten winners, including a memorable success on Amber Rambler when beating Pearlyman in the Future Champions Novices’ Chase at Ayr on April 19, 1986. He won two other races on Ambler Rambler that season and rated him the best horse he had ridden.

Steve won on Amber Rambler at Wetherby the following season and also finished fifth on him behind Little Bay and Badsworth Boy in Wetherby’s Castleford Chase. Steve's last winner was Colombiere in the Dry Doddington Selling Hurdle at Southwell on 21 February 1990.

However, winners were few and far between and he decided to call it a day to run a restaurant in the Channel Islands.

Reflecting at the time on the reasons for ending his career in the saddle he said: “I wanted to be successful and I have given the racing game a fair crack of the whip. But it didn’t come off. I have enjoyed riding, and had some fun doing it. But it’s all down to the quality of the horses you ride, no matter how hard you work at it.

“The job has become more difficult since I lost my claim, plus the fact that I don’t think I have gone through a season without being laid up at some time with injury. For the risks you take at my level, the rewards are not enough – I was only just surviving. In any case, it was getting boring with so few rides.”